Technical Additions for the 21st Century's Bingo Game
Table of Contents
The MPBingo® System
MPBingo® provides a turnkey system for high stakes bingo halls. MPBingo®'s system offers the following features, adding excitement to the game for the bingo player while automating bingo game management:
In MPBingo®, a computerized random number generator designates colors (blue, green, red, and yellow) to each of the 75 bingo numbers on the bingo flashboard before the game is started. The number of colors assigned to each number on the flashboard is specified below.
| Blue | 9 balls |
| Green | 11 balls |
| Red | 25 balls |
| Yellow | 30 balls |
| Total | 75 balls |
The players play a regular straight-line bingo game until a player calls out "BINGO". If the five squares making up the bingo line consist of mixed colors, the player wins the regular bingo prize. If the five squares consist of only one color (free square matches any color), the player also wins that color's jackpot.
The four colored jackpots hit at different rates because of the varying number of colors assigned to the numbers.
The Excitement of MPBingo® Player's Perspective
High stakes jackpots
MPBingo® has high stakes progressive jackpots included in each
and every game.
Multimedia effects
Color graphic game information, live jackpot totals, computer-rendered special effects,
large-screen displays.
Player tracking
Allows prize give-away's similar to frequent flyer programs.
Faster play
MPBingo® games last less than five minutes . (an average of
nine balls drawn per game)
Traditional rules
The play of MPBingo® uses the same basic rules as traditional
bingo. The rules only change when a winning bingo consists of all the same color.
Player confidence
MPBingo® uses an industry standard ball blower with a live ball
camera.
Security
MPBingo® tracks bingo paper sold by the card's face number,
game number, and bingo hall, eliminating duplicate faces and the possibility of
non-purchased paper being used to win prizes. This reinforces the belief that prizes are
going to legitimate winners.
The Excitement of MPBingo® Bingo Hall's Perspective
Bigger crowds
The large jackpots in MPBingo® will attract a wider variety of
players, including high stakes gamblers and younger players, as well as traditional bingo
players.
Insured profitability
All prizes are paid out of jackpot pools on a pari-mutuel basis (generated from a
percentage of card sales) to assure profitability.
Faster games
Faster play allows more games to be played, meaning more bingo cards purchased each night
Advertising revenue
The bingo hall can make additional income from the MPBingo®
system's scheduled, multi-media advertising. The MPBingo®
system can display any Internet compatible advertisement (JPEG, MPEG, quick-time movies,
...), or custom advertisements can be created off-line.
Faster point-of-sales
Color, easy to use touch screen point-of-sales terminals allow quicker pass through of
customers.
Cashier accountability
The MPBingo® system tracks a cashier's clock-in and clock-out
times, shift income, and cash drawer totals.
Paper tracking
MPBingo® tracks bingo cards sold by face number, game number,
and bingo hall. This renders unauthorized paper unplayable in any MPBingo®
hall. At the same time, it allows the recycling of unused paper into future games,
minimizing paper costs.
Easy to use
The point-of-sales terminals are state of the art color, touch screen terminals from
Micros Systems. The custom-designed point-of-sales menus are easy to understand,
intuitive, and non-modal (can jump between any two screens with one button push).
Cashier security/accountability
Each employee is given a card key and password to log onto any point-of-sales terminal.
There are three levels of privileges for security purposes, cashier privileges, management
privileges, and administrative privileges. Employees hours, employee sales (both bingo
games and accessories).
Bar-coded paper tracking
Since MPBingo® tracks bingo paper packets to the face number,
each paper packet sold is bar-coded. The bar code reader at the point-of-sales ensures
both speed and accuracy during purchases.
Tracks "courtesy reservations"
A customer can call to reserve seating. The customer is given a reservation number. The
customer gives the reservation number to the point-of-sales cashier. Those seats are held
until a predetermined time before the game.
Player tracking
Customers with player tracking cards can automatically get points awarded to their account
when purchasing bingo cards. Players can receive certificates for player tracking rewards
at the cashier's console. This is up to the discretion of each bingo hall or management
team.
Functionality:
An industry standard ball blower (Bingo King, Arrow) is used in MPBingo® to ensure game credibility. The ball blower unit is used strictly to select the ball selection.
A video camera televises the live ball to allow all customers easy viewing of the current bingo ball.
After manual ball selection at the ball blower station, the current bingo ball selected is sent via a serial connection from the ball blower to the Hall Central computer. The Hall Central Computer automatically updates game status displays and plays special effects.
The MPBingo® colors are generated by a random number generator in the Hall Central Computer before every game.
Functionality:
The MPBingo® Graphics Computer adds multi-media excitement to the bingo hall. Customized special effects and advertisements can be played on a schedule, or at the bingo caller's discretion (through the Operator's Console).
Advertisers can send any Internet compatible file to be played as an advertisement.
The Graphics computer has plenty of horsepower. It can play up to four independent movie files simultaneously. The computer also has a ten-gigabyte hard drive to store a large library of special effects and advertisements.
Functionality:
The MPBingo® Cashiers Console provides a separate computer station for prize payouts. The Cashiers Console gets a list of bingo winners (containing winning face number, game number, and prize amount) from the Hall Central Computer's database. Red and yellow jackpot prizes are awarded at the Cashier's Console immediately. Green and blue jackpot prizes are awarded by the bingo halls management team / Jackpot Operator.
The Cashiers Console can automatically generate 1099 tax forms to be printed immediately for customer convenience.
The Cashier Console is also used for player tracking inquiries and player tracking prize awards.
Functionality:
The MPBingo® Management Station allows real time tracking of all MPBingo® related finances. The Management Station is tied directly into the Hall Central Computer for immediate access to the MPBingo® financial status.
The Management Station communicates with the Hall Central Computer over an Ethernet connection, so it can be located remotely.
The Management Station is also able to analyze data trends on MPBingo® financial data.
MPBingo® Game Information
Computer
Functionality:
The MPBingo® Game Information Computer's sole responsibility is to display the current status of the MPBingo® games. This includes the 75 bingo ball colors, the previous balls called, the current ball, the five jackpots (yellow, red, green, blue, and regular), current game number, current paper color, and a message marquis (messages are entered at the Operators Console).
The Game Information Computers display is routed throughout the bingo hall for easy viewing by all bingo players. The Game Display Information screen can also be routed to monitors throughout the bingo hall.
After the current ball is chosen by the ball blower and entered into the Hall Central Compute, a special effect displaying the current ball is played on the Game Information Computer.
After a game, the Game Information Computer will display the winning bingo card.
MPBingo® Inventory
Control Computer
Functionality:
The MPBingo® Inventory Control Computer is used to track bingo paper, recycle unused paper for use into future games and eliminate duplicate faces.
The Inventory Control Computer can display trend data from the Hall Central Computer showing crowd sizes on a nightly, weekly, monthly or holiday basis. This can be used to determine how much paper to order, or which paper bins to re-use.
The Hall Central Computer also keeps track of how much paper from each bin was sold during a night, so that any discrepancies can be tracked down.
Since paper is tracked by face number, game number, and bingo hall, only faces from paper that has been purchased at a point-of-sales and entered into the Hall Central Computer can be verified as a winner.
The Hall Central Computer will immediately identify an unsold or invalid face. This eliminates operator and player errors during the game, as well as being a strong deterrent to bingo paper theft.
MPBingo® Hall Central
Computer
Functionality:
The MPBingo® Hall Central Computer is the heart of the MPBingo® system. It uses a high-end Compaq computer (dual 200 MHz Pentium processors) running Oracle software to control its database. Two Hall Central Computers are run redundantly so that in the event of a failure, the backup computer will immediately take over.
The Hall Central Computer performs the following functions:
MPBingo® Off-Site Jackpot
Operators Computer
Functionality:
The MPBingo® Jackpot Operators Computer links all MPBingo® halls. It will be connected to all MPBingo® halls by a high-speed T1 data link.
The Jackpot Operators Computer performs the following functions:
Functionality:
The MPBingo® Display Routing system enables a quick, customized installation of display monitors so that there is easy viewing from any seat in a MPBingo® hall. The Display Routing system allows the MPBingo® system to adapt easily to any size bingo hall.
The routing switcher inputs the following S-video signals from the MPBingo® system:
The outputs from the routing switch can be amplified and daisy chained anywhere throughout the bingo hall. The S-video output will be compatible with any standard display, from a 32" television, to a 5' rear projector TV, to a 30' projector.
Plan 1
| Setup 60+ minutes | Advertising |
| 50 minutes 10 minutes |
MPBingo® Specials |
| 50 minutes 10 minutes |
MPBingo® Specials |
| 20 minutes | Break/Advertising |
| 50 minutes 10 minutes |
MPBingo® Specials |
| 50 minutes 10 minutes |
MPBingo® Specials |
In-house advertisement between each MPBingo® game and Special games 1 minute
Total of 10 MPBingo® Games per hour.
Special games can be added by Bingo management.
Based on a 5 minute average per MPBingo® Game
MPBingo® Money and
Jackpot Disbursements
Cash Collection and Disbursement
The money collected at the point of sales for playing MPBingo® by the bingo hall management team will be deposited daily into the following accounts.
| Account Name | Account Holder |
| Royalty | Jackpot Manager |
| Jackpot Management | Jackpot Manager |
| Bingo hall | Bingo hall Name |
| (Management Co.) | (Management Co.) |
| Regular Jackpot | Bingo hall |
| Red Jackpot | Bingo hall |
| Yellow Jackpot | Bingo hall |
| Green Jackpot | Jackpot Manager |
| Blue Jackpot | Jackpot Manager |
The amount of money allocated to each account will be determined by the Bingo Hall Central Computer and will be displayed at the Operator's Console or Management Station.
The regular, red and yellow jackpot prizes will be paid to the bingo game winners at the cashier's console immediately after each game. It is the responsibility of the bingo hall management team to disburse these prizes. The bingo hall management team will be reimbursed the following day from the jackpot accounts.
The blue and green jackpot prizes will be paid to the bingo game winners by cashier's check within two business days. It is the responsibility of the Jackpot Manager to disburse these prizes. The blue and green jackpot accounts will be held in escrow. These escrow accounts will be set up meeting all legal requirements of the state and tribal gaming commissions.
Jackpot Prizes and Floors
All five jackpots (regular, red, yellow, green, and blue) accumulate on a pari-mutuel basis (a fixed percentage of money collected for each game). This results in larger jackpots on crowded nights, and smaller jackpots on less-crowded nights
To entice customers on less-crowded nights, MPBingo® recommends implementing jackpot floors. Jackpot floors, where a minimum prize for each jackpot is guaranteed, can be programmed directly into the MPBingo® System. The floors for all five jackpots can be adjusted independently at any time.
Income Distribution
The money collected in each MPBingo® game is allocated to the jackpot and management funds based on the percentages given in the MPBingo® Cash Breakdown spreadsheet. These percentages are stored in the Hall Central Computer and are adjustable through the Management Station.
In summary, the money collected for each MPBingo® game is immediately broken into the allotted percentages for the regular and progressive pools. The player's portion of the regular pool is given out each game as the regular bingo prize. The player's portion of the progressive pool is distributed to the colored jackpots and is paid out whenever a colored jackpot hits. The Jackpot Manager and bingo management receives a fixed percentage of both pools.
Hidden and Reset Funds
The "hidden" funds are used to seed the colored jackpots after a jackpot has been hit. In the event of a colored jackpot winner, the color's "current" fund is given away as the jackpot prize, and all "hidden" funds are shifted (hidden 1 is put into the current fund, hidden 2 into hidden 1, hidden 3 into hidden 2, hidden 4 into hidden 3, and hidden 4 becomes empty).
The "reset", or "floor insurance" fund, is used to help cover the liabilities caused by guaranteeing jackpot floors. If a jackpot's allotted monies, including its appropriate hidden fund, do not cover the jackpot floor, the money in the reset fund is used to help reach the jackpot floor.
Jackpot Floor Liability
If a jackpot's allotted monies, along with the appropriate hidden and reset fund, do not fully cover the jackpot floor of a winning jackpot, the remaining deficit is the responsibility of bingo management team and the tribe. Jackpot floor liabilities are calculated and maintained by the Bingo Hall Central Computer.
MPBingo® Escrow Account
Blue and Green Jackpot Revenue
The blue and green jackpot revenues will be deposited in an escrow account until a Multi-Progressive jackpot is won in a participating bingo hall. Procedures and general information follow.
General Information
Individual Bingo Hall's Responsibility
Jackpot Manager's Responsibility
Authorized Bank's Responsibilities
Jackpot Procedures
